9321636 Hunt The project compares seabirds and zooplankton populations in the St. Lawrence Island Polynya (SLIP) and in the Gulf of Anadyr Polynya (GAP). The SLIP is shallow (30-40m) and is expected to have a sluggish water circulation when compared to the strongly advective regime expected for the deeper (50-200m) GAP. Scientists predict that the ocean zooplankton community of the GAP will be dominated by pelagic Neocalanus species that have been advected from the slope region of the Bering Sea. Whereas in the SLIP, small coastal species will probably dominate but not until late in the season. The premise of the project is that seabird communities occupying the open ocean polynyas will reflect the relative abundance of pelagic food web and that zooplanktivorous auklets will be more abundant in the GAP than in the SLIP. It's expected that SLIP seabird diets will reflect an epibenthic dominated food web and carbon fixed in previous season contrary to that in GAP, where carbon from the current year's production may be advected from the slope in growing copepods. This integrated study will provide a first order estimate of the potential influence of seabirds on polynya carbon budgets, and the first accounts of zooplankton and seabirds in western Arctic polynyas with differing advective regimes and presumed carbon cycling pathways. ***
